The Monster in the Forest
by MissMCQueen
Summary: After being accepted as a student of the great Orochimaru, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha, Sakura soon finds herself fleeing to the outskirts of the village, only to encounter and befriend the last person she’d ever expect.
1. Today you are My Student

Currently Missq is now enjoying her outrageously long summer vacation, other than the fact SHE'S SO BLOODY BORED! Sure there's about a million things I should be doing such as cleaning my room, studding for a deportment test, and attempting to read all the Japanese manga I brought back with me from Japan. But for some reason I don't actually feel like doing any of the above which is why I'm writing this instead of sleeping.

And Voila! A brand new story from the usually comatose writer Missq. Recently I've been re-reading past stories from when I was 14 or so, and I'm failing to see much of a difference between my writing skills, which means I much improve. So therefore I think I'll have a go trying to get this out on paper, or computer as it seems. Most of the time I simply give up pretty fast since I have no idea what to put next, or I get tired, or busy, or decide to sleep instead of staying up until 2 in the morning to write. This accounts for my lack of fan fiction over the years. That and I became obsessed with reading Naruto, and wasted many precious hours watching Anime.

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It was a proud day for Haruno Sakura, one in which she hoped would come true only in her wildest dreams. She, above all other students in the ninja academy had some how managed to become the student of the great Ninja Orochimaru, also known as the fifth Hokage of Konoha.

Orochimaru was the student of Danzou the third, and Danzou had been a student of the first and second. She was going to learn from a teacher whose very roots tranced back to the founder of Konoha. The possibilities and potential for learning were endless; it made her dizzy with joy. To be the student of such a powerful and respected man was the greatest honour that any Gennin could ever imagine. She was still pinching herself.

That wasn't the only great thing about being apprenticed by the current Hokage, one of her fellow team mates was Uchiha Sasuke. _The_ Uchiha Sasuke that she'd spent most of her academy years obsessively stalking and fantasying about. Everything about him was wonderful, his eyes, the hair, the amazing genius skill, how could any girl not love Mr Amazing? As to be expected half academy's female population was now cursing her with hate, and producing Sakura voodoo dolls. It was worth the constant hours of study and work just to see the look on Ino Pigs face. It was absolutely priceless. Her fellow gennin was now standing in the crowd before her, arms crossed and face screwed up in jealousy. The hair which she had grown long for Sasuke's sake swished dramatically behind her in the wind. The other source of Ino's displeasure was how she was paired up with what she claimed to be a lazy bum and a fat ass.

The other member of Sakura's new team was a quite boy who addressed himself as Tarou. He managed to achieve results just above Sakura's to her dismay. Despite being the smartest in her class she tended to lack in physical strength, something which she hoped to improve with training. Tarou was one of the people she payed very little attention to during school (Since she was usually busy preoccupied with a certain Uchiha) so there was very little which she knew about the other boy, except that he'd been deemed worthy enough to be accepted by Orochimaru.

Sakura straightened her dress and attempted to stand as straight as possible. Before her lay most of the village who had turned up to see just who their Hokage had finally chosen as students, and their eyes were beginning to make her feel squeamish. On her left stood Sasuke, and Tarou on her right. The Uchiha stood neutral and nonchalant as always, as though he believed such fruitful time would be better spend on training than providing entertainment to such a worthless crowded. She envied his ability to stay calm. What if her hair wasn't straight or her forehead protector slipped? Would she look silly and girlish if she straightened it? What if Orochimaru changed his mind after observing her pitiful strength? What if he decided that Ino was a better student? What if Sasuke continued to ignore her like always? How would they function as a team? What if they failed their missions? Would it de-name their current Hokage?

Her mental panic attack was brought to a halt as her new teacher, and the current Hokage, took to the stage and took a place next to Sasuke. For an instant she could have almost sworn she glimpsed a look of hunger in her teacher's snake like eyes when he looked towards the dark haired boy, but she quickly dismissed it as only her imagination. It was silly to think such things of the great Orochimaru.

"Citizens of Konoha, I stand before you to present the talented new Gennin who I have deemed worthy enough to take on as apprentices."

Did he just call her talented? Sakura found it hard to believe his statement and began subconsciously fiddling with the ends of her long hair. Just like Ino she had spent years growing it long for Sasuke's sake, but the boy barely payed any attention. Maybe he'd changed his mind and preferred girls with short hair now?

"As you know I don't think lightly of taking on students, so it has taken a great deal of time to choose the ones that stand before you. Next to myself stands Uchiha Sasuke of the prestigious Uchiha clan……."

Orochimaru's serpent like voice somehow managed to project itself over the crowd but Sakura quickly detected people at the back standing up on boxes or attempting to move closed in order to grant themselves a better view. Scanning the crowd she could see fellow classmates such as Hyuga Hinata standing with people who must have been her family. And with a closer look she could also see Kiba in a fierce argument with what looked to be his sister, oblivious to everything that was going on around him like always.

She let herself smile slightly at the familiarity of her academy classmates. That feeling immediately diminished the moment her eyes unintentionally fell upon that person. That instant all sound became deaf to her ears, and the entire world seemed to freeze around her.

It was that boy, the boy in which nobody dared speak to or engage in any form of human contact. It was the thing in which the village both fared and hated, it was what terrified children in their dreams. It was the very thing that made her blood run cold and her heart race in fear.

Before her in the crowd stood the Nine Tails demon fox.

He was congested in amongst a group of people who slowly backed away once they noticed his presence. Ice blue eyes glared out from underneath a head of sandy blonde hair, with a face that was both cold and neutral like Sasuke's, but seemed more frightening and dangerous. To her he felt so bitter and detached, as though he were surrounded by ice and fire at the same time.

But what frightened her most was how he was staring right at her.

Quickly she evaded her eyes to the wooden stage below her, both her worries and confidence diminished. Why was that thing here? As far as she knew he tended to avoid all social situations and people at most times, only appearing in public on rare occasions. He had long been forbidden from learning any form of Ninjitsu and had therefore never attended the academy. But a monster such as that had no need for Ninja skills when he could simply rip your heart out with one fatal swipe, as she had been told. God Damn it! Why couldn't it just curl up and die some place, why did it have to show its face here and ruin her perfect day.

She quickly raised her eyes only to find he was now glaring at her new teacher with what looked like absolute hate. Sakura could have sworn that his eyes flashed crimson red for a single moment before he turned and made an exit out of the crowd. People jumped back in fear as he approached.

She let out a sigh of relief before assuming the dignified and confident pose that a student of Orochimaru's should posses. When the crowd began clapping it became apparent that she had completely tuned out to what the Hokage had said, who was now making his exit at the back of the stage. Unsure on what to do next she followed Sasuke who was beginning to leave.

"Ah excuse me Sakura-san, I know that we haven't really talked in the past but…." came the nervous voice of her other team mate who was attempting to formally start up a conversion with her now that they had the opportunity to talk. But Sakura instead chose to ignore him and follow after the only person who held her interest in the hope of maybe somehow persuading a date out of him.

In the following months she would continue to pay very little attention to the one who named himself Tarou, instead paying most of her time attempting to play out her girlish fantasies with a certain dark haired Uchiha.

It was something she would soon regret after Tarou's unexpected death.

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Well that's me trying to establish the beginning of my story. I'll try and get the next chapter up soon. Feedback is most welcome and helpful.

Missq .


	2. A Chance Encounter

_Once again there is pain as we make it our own, of the blood Red sandman coming home… _

I'm really obsessed with a certain song by a band called Lordi at the moment. They won last year's Eurovision song contest so they'd be familiar to most people. I think 'Blood Red Sandman' would be a good song to refer to Garaa with, I'm not quite sure if he'll make and appearance in this story or not, I haven't quite decided.

I started writing this one night after chapter one since I've eaten too much sugar, therefore not being tired. I don't know whether I can see a future for chapter 3 yet. I'd like to thank you all very much for reviewing. I was feeling really dejected since nothing had shown up in my inbox, but I made me really happy to see them up on size=1 width=100% noshade>--------------------------------------------------------------

A full six months had passed since the day when it was announced to the village that she was to become a student of the greatest Ninja in the village. At that moment she'd been bouncing with joy and anticipation of what was soon to come, but her hopes were slowly dashed as time when on, and things only began going down hill.

To start with everything had been simple and predictable. They had gone through basic training, and Sakura was thankful that it had been Tarou who was strapped to the log instead of her. Orochimaru seemed to have very little interest in promoting team work and often intentionally played them off against each other to see who would end up on top. Sakuke usually excelled in all physical situations, and with the help of her brains Sakura could usually avoid losing. But despite having skill above the average Gennin Tarou always ended up last. It made her wonder if Orochimaru was trying to single out the weakest and most useless amongst them.

Simple missions were next. But it was far below them for students of the great Orochimaru to train on low level D rank missions, and they skipped straight to C. They were hard and challenging for beginners, but some how they managed to pull through. Sakura would often find herself in a tough situation only to have Sasuke scrape through and obtain all the honour. It was obvious that team mates were only slowing the prodigy down, and that he could easily complete the mission without them. This only succeeded in making Sakura feel more useless and inadequate.

Before long she was assigned to help with Orochimaru's experiments. It greatly interested her at first, until she discovered she was left to do most of the cleaning up and data analysis with Orochimaru's young assistant Kabuto. He appealed to her at first, and she believed him to be a kind and sincere senior Gennin till she viewed him behind closed doors with Orochimaru. After a while she began picking up on the more darker elements of the older boy, and now felt uneasy in his presence. It was almost as though everything he said and did around her was some form of act, and she was beginning to feel that he didn't really like her.

Despite spending hours staring at data she had no clue to what Orochimaru's experiments actually were. She had been told time and time again that he was testing the effects of Jitsu on animals in order to create new and amazing techniques. But for some reason that data just didn't add up, and she was feeling that something was defiantly amiss. If it were such a simple thing then why was she forbidden from viewing the procedure, or even allowed a summery of the method? Any attempts at investigation were quickly brought to an end by Kabuto who seemed to watch her like a hawk.

The next event was what brought all doubts of her teacher to life, and left her frightened to be in the man's presence. To all outsiders the death of Tarou was believed to be a fatal accident which occurred by a talented student pushing himself too far for his great mentor. She was told by Orochimaru that Tarou had attempted a dangerous forbidden jitsu which resulted in a drain of chakra that eventually ended his life. Sakura found this hard to believe. Despite knowing very little of her quiet team mate, he was certainly a person who stuck to the rules and did only what he was commanded. What further fuelled her doubts was overhearing some of the older Jounin talk at the local ramen stand about how many of Orochimaru's students seemed to meet with tragic ends.

It was clearly obvious that she had to get out and as further a way from her teacher as possible. With Tarou now gone she had become to weakest member of team seven and it frightened her just what Orochimaru could one day do. She knew that he would never touch Sasuke. He adored the boy to the point of one day making him the heir to Hokage. Ever so slowly Sasuke was also changing to be come more like the snake like man, and less like the boy she had spent half her childhood fixated about.

As much as she desired it she could not admit these doubts to anyone. After all, who would willingly accept bad facts or rumours about their most prized firth Hokage? The genius Orochimaru would never do anything bad against the village let alone kill his own student. It was a ridiculous statement, and she would be mocked to ever suggest it to another living person. Not to mention what her teacher would do if he ever discovered that she had suspicions about his dark behaviour.

So here was the great student of Orochimaru, resorting to training outside the village of Konoha in the local forest. She returned home everyday at sunset, but this was the only place where she felt free from the grasp of her teacher. He didn't seem to really care that she was gone, and she supposed that he must have lost interest in her long ago and was now fixated in training the Uchiha prodigy.

She was at first tempted to join in training with Ino and her team, but she had spent so much time rubbing in how she'd been paired with Sasuke that the idea was simply impossible. Instead she opted to self train herself with scrolls from the local Ninja library which covered all the Gennin and chuunin basics. So far she had mastered tree walking with ease, and was ready to more onto water.

Sakura stared at the flowing stream beneath her with slight apprehension. Surely she could master this in one day like with trees, the concept was still similar. There was a slight current, but the water appeared shallow, so surely if she stuffed up she could just stand up and get out again. She unclipped all her Ninja equipment and dropped in on the ground beside her for safe keeping. Slowly she clasped her hands together in a seal and concentrated on sending the right amount of energy to her feet. All the while things about how freezing the water must be if she were to ever fall in.

With a deep breath she placed one foot out to step on the water, then another, to her amazement her feet remained slightly submerged up till her ankle, but she was still clearly standing up against most of the volume. She was almost about to cheer before her feet suddenly feel and she found herself completely submerged over her head.

Franticly she reached out with her feet to touch the bottom only to discover that she had gravely misjudged the depth, and the current was also far stronger that what it appeared from the surface. Swimming was not a skill Sakura had been taught since it was believed useless once she perfected water walking, and there were very little opportunity to practice in such a land bound country.

Franticly she began kick to keep her head above surface and to somehow fight the current that was slowly dragging her away. Water was constantly splashing into her face and down her throat, which made it hard to breathe.

Why on God's Earth had she attempted such a stupid stunt by herself in the middle of no where? What was the point to trying to save herself from her evil teacher if she was just going to end up drowning in some tinny river in the middle of the forest? She should have at least brought someone to watch her, or practiced with a bucket of water. This was the price to pay for her overconfidence.

"ANYONE….. HELP!!" she screamed. Even though it was pointless, she could pray that someone was training near by. Unfortunately her fight against the current was becoming more fruitless as its power increased and she found herself being dragged away at a faster pace. She attempted to reach for the banks or anything to hold only, only to have her fingers scrape though mud.

Then all of a sudden she felt a tight grip around her wrist and the force of someone trying to yank her out of the water. Her saviour was not particularly strong, and it took them a great effort to pull her upwards. Once her head was above water she stared up at the blurry image of her rescuer who she could not distinguish though water soaked eyes.

At last they somehow managed to elevate her enough for Sakura to grab hold of the bank and drag herself free. She bent over couching and spluttering water, wet hair plastered to her face. Behind her she could see her abandoned Ninja gear a mere 10 meters upstream on the opposite bank. She must have looked like a true fool to almost drown in such a minuscule stream. The current that almost killed her also looked so weak and pitiful.

She turned up to face her saviour to almost fall back into the river with shock.

Crouched down on his knees and staring at her with both interest and concern was the Nine Tails Fox monster. She'd never once been this close to the monster that most of the village inhabits tried their best to avoid. He was far smaller that she imagined, with less aggressive features, but still cold and detached. From a distant she always imagined him to be large and ferocious, with fang like teeth and claws, but the only abnormal feature she could notice were the deeply etched whisker marks on the sides of his face. The boy was clad simply in a black T-shirt and Orange pants. His blonde hair was cut roughly and almost hung down to his eyes as though he wasn't particularly skilled with hair styling.

'Looks don't matter' thought Sakura. She knew exactly what he was and she refused to be put off by the deceptive exterior. Deep down she knew that the thing before her was the blood thirsty monster that once tried to obliterate her village. He probably only dragged her out of that river so he could eat her.

The boy brushed of her frightened and hatful glances as though he were accustomed to it. He took to his feet, coldly turned his back toward her, and began to silently walk away.

Sakura was confused till she noticed a pile of chopped wood a distance away that looked as though it had been dropped in a hurry. She watched silently, not daring to move, as he slowly begun picking one log up after another. It looked to be too much for the monster but he managed to balance it fine once finished.

If she wasn't scared to death of the thing before her she would have warned him about the large stone directly in his path. Predictably he soon tripped and comically fell, sprawling his efforts all over the forest floor.

He looked quite dejected for a moment, and immediately glanced over at Sakura to check if she was watching, cheeks red in embarrassment. He quickly sat up and began to act in a way that resembled either defeat or sulking. Sakura did the only thing possible at that moment.

She began to laugh.

Sakura was incapable of stopping herself, and even though she knew she should be fleeing for her life for acting in such a way towards the monster, she just didn't care. He looked like such a kid instead of the demon she'd always imagined. How was it that she'd spent most of her time trembling in fear of something that didn't even have coordination? He was just….. nothing.

Instead of going rabid and ripping her throat out as she expected, he soon begun turning a further shade of red. This only fuelled her insane looking laughing streak. God knows how long it had been since she'd even been able to smile, let alone find anything funny.

Sakura then proceeded to roll over onto the ground, clutching her side which now had a stich form the sudden lung activity.

The boy sat up trying to plan his next move. There was a girl laughing at him, nothing like that had ever occurred before. He was accustomed to people screaming and swearing at him, but what did it mean to be laughed at? It had only taken a single moment of foolishness to destroy his cold frightful image that succeeded in making people back off and leave him alone. Did he really appear so pitiful now that he was simply a joke?

He looked back at the water soaked girl to see what she was doing. He had seen her once before looking a lot prettier at Orochimaru's announcement, but he'd payed very little attention. What was a student of Orochimaru's doing all the way out here? Was she sent here by the snake bastard to take him back?

To his sudden surprise he found her missing in the area she previously occupied. He retuned his gaze forward to see the pink haired girl before him picking up his firewood.

"Here let me help you with these," she smiled as he jumped back in surprise. He looked almost as though he was expecting her to run off with his efforts

"Thank you," he muttered under his breath as he begun slowly searching for pieced that had rolled off to god knows where, all the while trying to avoid eye contact with the girl.

A few minutes latter she presented herself before him with her arms full of wood smiling kindly. "Here," she said as she began piling them into him arms one after another. Out of no where she began laughing again.

Sakura couldn't help herself, he was even shorter than she was, and with his worn clothes he looked like such an orphan. They way he also refused to look at her was comical. It was almost hard to believe that the shy boy who stood before her was the same monster she'd learnt about in school. Unless she knew otherwise she would have been incapable of making the connection. It just felt so foolish to spend most of her life fearing something that wasn't the slightest bit frightening at all.

"Thank you," she smiled. "For saving me."

The boy nodded before quickly turning to make a hasty exit away from the once thing he just couldn't understand, anyone being kind to him.

"I'm Sakura by the way," she yelled out after him as he began disappearing into the distance, still giggling to herself.

The boy paused for a moment before he turned to face her. Out of nowhere the wind suddenly picked up to blow autumn leaves dramatically behind him. The shyness was gone from his face and he looked directly into her eyes with such strength that Sakura could feel something stirring within her.

"I'm Naruto."

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And that concludes chapter Number Two. Tell me if this is hard to make sense off, I just don't want to hand out the plot on a silver platter and a lot of things will explain themselves as the story goes on. Such as why Oro is Hokage, and the fate of Tsunade and Sarutobi.

I used to write lots of Japanese dialogue in my stories, but after spending some time in Japan I find it easier to just write completely in English or Japanese. Also with the Japanese I know most people wouldn't understand, and it would just slow the story down. Plus I'm finding it painful to write in Romaji, it either Japanese script or nothing.

There might be a chapter 3.. um…maybe

Missq


	3. This is how you climb a tree

Hello to all. It's now 10:30 at night, the time when Missq's latent writing abilities finally come alive. Yes instead of staring at the keyboard for hours thinking about what to write, I half slump over it out of fatigue and write down any random crap that comes to mind.

Yay I'm finally writing chapter 3. In between this and two I've been reading some of my Japanese Naruto books. (I have all 35 now as well as the data and fun books) Unfortunately my Japanese is not quite as speedy as my English so it takes me about a week on and off just to get through one. But they're so worth it. (Although currently I'm only up to book five.) I'm starting to find Manga in English strange.

Kakashi: Omae no mirai wa shinda

I rewrote the part in which Sakura and Naruto meet in chapter two since I thought it was pretty weak, I've also been editing chapter one and two again and again. I really wanted the scene to become more powerful or something. Hopefully I can do alright for chapter three, cheer me on. Naruto and Sakura will become more like their manga selves as the story progresses. Surprisingly Naruto is colder than I intended.

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Quite predictably her bedside alarm clock finally decided to strike midnight the very moment Sakura chose to roll over and check the current time. She sighed in exasperation before returning her gaze to the bedroom ceiling in which shadows caused by the outside street lamp danced merrily.

It was unlike Sakura to have trouble sleeping, but so many interesting events had occurred during the past few days that she couldn't help but stay up and mull over them. If she was unfortunate enough to encounter Ino in the morning, the blonde would probably take much delight in pointing out her haggard appearance and how Sasuke-kun would surely prefer girls who got their beauty sleep.

Randomly the image of the village's monster manifested itself in amongst the shadows, but no longer did Sakura think of him with a bitter taste in her mouth.'_So he calls himself Naruto.'_ muttered her thoughts. The moment when he announced his name came clearly to mind as though it were happening once more, those aqua blue eyes that had gazed so strongly into hers for that fleeting second. It was hard to describe the feeling, but it stirred something within Sakura that she hadn't ever felt before. Was it admiration? But after having time to think there was also a begging quality about those eyes, as though he was unintentionally screaming out to have his identity acknowledged. It was hard to explain why, but she was plagued by an explainable urge to believe in the stranger who she had only truly seen for a moment.

But the name Naruto? She'd never heard it used on a person before, and spent a good a few days pondering whether he was named after the Ramen, or what the Ramen was originally named after. Wouldn't it be amusing if his last name were Uzumaki, after the whirlpool patten printed on Ramen Naruto?

It was two days later while searching though the largest volume of 'A history of Konoha' that she discovered that someone actually had the decency to dish out such a strange name.

It was hard to find information on the mysterious boy though. Even though it was common knowledge though out the village, very few people were willing to ruin their day by discussing the fox monster, her mother included. So it was only by searching though library books that she learnt what the boy truly was.

Apparently he wasn't even the Nine Tails who had attacked the village as she had been lead to believe. He was only the human sacrifice used to contain the demon, which didn't make much of a difference in the village's eyes. She'd studied the event briefly during school with Ikura-sensei, but they'd only been eight at the time, so it was impossible to remember that far back. Most books didn't even mention Naruto's name, and it was only after lugging the largest history book off the shelf was it finally uncovered.

It brought her attention back to the hero of the village who had destroyed the nine tails, but despite giving his life so that Konoha could continue to prosper, the poor man never seemed to gain any acknowledgement at all.

Through her history book, in a tiny paragraph which didn't even mention his name, she discovered that no one had ever expected The Forth to become Hokage at all. Her own so called teacher Orochimaru had been one of three students chosen by Danzou, the Third, and had been trained though out his apprenticeship to become the next leader of Konoha. Danzou had been a tough leader who was also named 'The Hawk' for his tough actions, and violent decisions. Many wars had been fought during The Third's time which had crippled Konoha unnecessary, but the village always just remained standing. Eventually the time came for The Third to retire, but to everyone's surprise he picked a man who was known for his great achievements though war instead of his own student.

Sakura could imagine her teacher throwing a little snake like tantrum at not being picked, and she was surprised that he hadn't personally flattened the village before the Kyuubi arrived. It was impossible to imagine that Orochimaru would take well to not being given the position that he'd spent most of his life preparing for.

The Nine Tails attack came soon afterwards, but instead of returning to his job as Hokage after The Forth's death Danzou remained in retirement and passed the roll onto Orochimaru, which was the same up until their current day. The Third had finally passed away a few years ago, but she recalled reading an artical about him taking all the resulting orphans from the Kyuubi attack into the Anbu. Her book then rolled onto many chapters about the greatness of Orochimaru which she honestly couldn't care less about anymore, therefore the search was abandoned in favour of training

When she wasn't studying or spending time in the library, Sakura had been on the lookout for Naruto in the woods. There had been only a brief encounter to which the boy only made another hasty exit. Some could call her actions slightly obsessive like those for Sasuke, but it was the most exciting event that she'd experienced for months. It was like a new school research project for Sakura, 'find out the truth about the Kyuubi kid,' and she was just itching to find out what truly lay behind the Nine Tails image that overshadowed Naruto.

It did once occur to her the possible danger of wishing to associate with the village monster, and container to a very dangerous demon. But there were never any official cases of Naruto causing harm to anyone. Sure there were countless rumours of him attacking random civilians on a whim, but Sakura could not recall anyone she knew who had been personally killed or maimed by Naruto. From what she could tell he seemed to just avoid all people and kept to himself. A person who saved her from possible death couldn't be entirely evil.

Sasuke was still her one true love of course; nothing in the world could change that even if he was slowly drifting further away. As much as her common sense told her she refused to believe that he would succumb fully to Orochimaru. Surely Sasuke would have rushed to her aid if he'd been in the woods that day.

And so it was with happy thoughts of Sasuke saving her from drowning streams and enemy shinobi, did Sakura finally drift off to sleep. But it was Uzumaki Naruto who was waiting in her dreams.

It was the same scene in the forest once more with the autumn leaves billowing around the blonde haired boy. Unlike before he stood tall and silent, and simply stared towards her with blank melancholy eyes.

Slowly as the night progressed the eyes of Naruto remained, but the image around them changed and warped in a swirl of colours. Suddenly there stood Tarou dressed in the black funeral clothes he was probably buried in. She 'd payed very little attention to him during their time as a team, but he appeared before her vividly. Short brown hair poked out from underneath the forehead protector which he had once worn proudly around his temples. His blue eyes were dulled and looked towards her with an expression that could be taken as disappointment, or remorse. The boy opened his mouth to utter silent accusations before he unexpectedly fell to the side as though hit. Blood instantaneously began gushing from his neck before the body hit the ground, tainting everything a shade of crimson red.

It was a good thing Sakura forgot her dream the moment the bedside alarm went off, otherwise she would have been reminded of an event she'd spent the past few months forcefully trying to suppress.

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"And so you focus on sending the right amount of energy to your feet, then focus on your target and visualise it in your mind," repeated Sakura for the tenth time as though reading from a school text book.

Her new student of course failed to get the message and instead stared up at her with envy as she absently sat dangling her legs on a branch 30 meters above him. Once again Naruto placed his hands together to form a seal, ran towards his target, and fell down again after only taking five steps up the trunk.

Sakura hung her head and sighed in exasperation. They had been going at this for over two hours and still he had barely improved. Sakura was a brilliant student, but that didn't usually make brilliant teachers for children who barely knew any ninja skills.

It had first surprised her that he could even manipulate chakra at all, even if she had to spend half an hour explaining it to him. Wasn't he banned for learning any form of Ninjitsu? She supposed that it was worth admiring the boy for his determination at sticking at this for so long, and still having energy. Her stamina was pitiful.

Sakura clasped her first together in determination to avoid feeling disheartened. "Yosh your secrets are mine Uzumaki Naruto." Though luck she had managed to corner him in the forest and with the promise of learning Ninjitsu, lure him into a conversational situation. If her tactics were this successful with Sasuke she would have had the boy wooed and begging at her feet by now.

After falling from the tree yet again and having to withstand Sakura showing off, Naruto's patience was coming to an end. Part of him was overjoyed that another living person was willing to be in his presence. But years of harsh treatment made him suspicious of the pink haired girl's motive, especially if she was the student of the Hokage who he was not on good terms with. "Are you sure this is how you do it!" He bellowed upwards.

Sakura narrowed her brow in frustration. "Of course! Do you honestly think I would waste this much time for a joke!"

"Honestly," she muttered before slowly getting to her feet and descending back down the tree trunk. Children were so impatient. Judging from his hight she guessed him to be about 11 or so. He should show more respect to a senior. "If you can manipulate Chakra you should be able to do this. It's easy," well that part was a slight lie, from what her textbook claimed it was difficult even for an accomplished Gennin.

Naruto stared back up at the tree, and then to the marks he had etched with the use of Sakura's kunai. He couldn't help but feel slightly disheartened at his progress when this girl could walk up and down at snail's pace. He had also witnessed other ninja within the village preforming the same type of technique, he had to master it.

Sakura jumped off to allow him to try for another attempt, and took a place sitting on a near by rock to examine his progress. She gave a crestfallen sigh every time he fell to the ground, and was beginning to suspect that it was impossible for him to learn anything at all. Maybe he was banned from learning ninjitsu because he drove too many teachers insane. She had waited long enough, it was interrogate Naruto time.

After ten minutes of pondering what to say and fiddling with her hair Sakura decided to start off with something simple. "They have your name in the history book you know," she said absently.

Naruto's ears pricked with interest for a split second before he shrugged and turned his attention back his tree. Ever so slowly he was developing the urge to go get an axe.

Her brow twitched with his lack of reaction but Sakura refused to give up. "You should really look and see for yourself, it's in the biggest history book in the library," she continued. "They have lots of books on Ninja techniques that you can look up."

"I'm not allowed in the library," Naruto muttered bitterly without looking away from his task.

"Or the book shops," she suggested.

"I'm not allowed there either."

If Sakura hadn't been so determined in her investigation she would have been outweighed by a great feeling of pity for the boy who stood before her. But after a lifetime of being taught to hate Naruto and listening to the villagers express their greatest wish being his death, it would take a while for the full realisation of such a thing to sink in. Sakura also lacked subtle interview techniques.

"Sooo….Do you go to the village much?"

Naruto stiffened, his days where lonely and quite, he was beginning to miss the silence that accompanied him everywhere. "If I can avoid it," he mumbled.

"What do you do in your free time?"

"Stuff," he growled.

"How long have you been out here in the woods?

"A while."

"Why do you hang out here?"

"They don't exactly welcome me into the village"

"Oh," muttered Sakura as she hung her head in understanding before suddenly brightening up. "Where do you live?"

Naruto finally decided he'd had enough and couldn't take it anymore, the girl was most likely sent here by Orochimaru to investigate and he refused to tell her anything. He'd relocated himself to get away from the fiendish Hokage, and he refused to have the bastard come out and disrupt his life any longer, even in the form of the pretty girl that stood before him. Enough was enough, he wasn't a stupid little child anymore and he refused to fall for any tricks.

Dramatically he though the kunai down at his feet which startled Sakura and began to storm off. Once he was a fair distance away he turned back to yell at her. "I've had enough of your mocking and questioning, just go back to your stupid teacher and tell him to leave me alone!" he both yelled and spat. The look on her face made him instantly feel guilty, but he refused to feel regret for a spy of Orochimaru. And with that Naruto sped off out of sight at a speed that could rival the average Gennin.

Sakura stood there shocked for a moment unable to speak, trying to figure out what she had done wrong. Maybe the boy was after all a person who was incapable of association with other people. Maybe it really was a mistake to try and investigate him. He seemed so angry with her.

'_He hate me too,'_ she thought to herself. Memories of her encounter with Sasuke after they became a team came to mind.

"_Your annoying,"_ echoed Sasuke's voice within her head, followed by the image of the boy walking off with his nose high in the air.

'_Yes, he hates me, just like Sasuke,'_ and with that thought constantly repeating itself within her mind Sakura slowly made her way back to the village despite still being midday. Shoulders hunched and face blank for the entire journey.

She arrived home only to encounter one of Orochimaru's messengers that she usually went out of her way to avoid, telling her to report to her teacher.

She trudged all the way up to the tower as though it were engulfed in a back cloud and eventually discovered the Hokage hidden behind piles of text books, sorting through paperwork at a rapid pace. He was obviously too busy to express any ill feelings towards her for avoiding him, which gave the impression that he probably didn't care, or simply hadn't noticed. With a click of his fingers Kabuto was sent in lugging a pile of tomes for her to study over the upcoming days. The older boy shooed her out of the office as soon as she accepted them, claiming that _Orochimaru-sama_ did not need distractions.

It was only after walking out of the Hokage tower feeling as though she'd had a near death experience that Sakura finally glanced over the list she had been given. Surprisingly they all covered the subject of human anatomy.

And then it suddenly hit her.

Naruto had been the first person she'd ever met to openly insult their current Hokage.

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* * *

In the time since her last encounter with Naruto the boy had failed to make another appearance, nor did she attempt to search for him on the assumption the he held nothing but contempt for strangers. This left Sakura to continue out her boring and equally lonely secrete forest training. Fear also led her to study the books Orochimaru had assigned. They were defiantly interesting, but for what reason was she studying them. Did Orochimaru have a purpose for her?

Sakura decided long ago that having a purpose for Orochimaru insured she was going to live, and swore to try and learn each one cover to cover for the next time they met. Maybe if she impressed him with her brains he would overlook her progress in the way of Ninja skills. Ino's team was the weakest when they were assigned into groups, but after catching sight of their training sessions and missions, they had even progressed further than her.

"Shit," Sakura swore as her arm hit a branch. Currently she was going through a drill of running in amongst the forest trees. Unfortunately her mind kept wandering which lead to collision with overgrown foliage and small branches. For the past week she'd been torturing herself on a new fad diet that left very little energy for training. Despite hardly ever seeing her mother, the woman was constantly forcing her to eat more, but Sakura's mental image of bulging out of her red ninja dress refused to relent. No boy was going to go for a fat Ninja especially Sasuke, and Ino was already thinner. She couldn't lose to her rival no matter what.

And with that Sakura's mind went into a frenzy of thoughts about weight lose, which were immediately brought to an end when her body met with the trunk of a camouflaged tree. The force was enough to knock her out and sent her unconscious body plummeting towards the forest undergrowth, which save her from breaking any limbs. To say that Sakura would probably kill herself training before Orochimaru got to her was a fair statement.

And so the student of the great Hokage lay there unconscious long after the sun had finally set and rain was beginning to fall, laying completely unnoticed by the many returning Ninja, and prone to insects that began to slowly munch away at the ends of her dress.

That was until a certain blonde haired ninja wannabe spotted her red dress and pink hair in the moonlight on his way home.

Naruto took one look at her current state and hung his head in shame. This girl was most defiantly going to end up killing herself.

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I had to write a story for my local anime contest which is just added to my profile page. Feedback on that if you have the time would be really good. It's an Inu-Yasha plot line parody. My friend liked it, but she seemed to like all the other sarcastic crap I wrote too.

In case you don't know Danzou he appears in Naruto a fair way into part 2. He was Sarutobi's rival for Hokage so he dislikes anyone connected to the third especially Tsunade. He attempts to contact Orochimaru and form a plan to over throw Tsunade, but his messenger choses to instead join the Naruto cause.

Omake, caused by Missq having writers block in the middle of the second part

There was a rustle of pages as Naruto began absently flipping through his scrip for today, ever few minutes or so he would glace up at Sakura who was also reading her lines, or at the tree before him which he would be constantly falling from. "Nee Sakura," he said while scratching the back of his head nervously. "This new me, is a bit…" he trailed off.

Sakura narrowed her brow in annoyance as he broke her concentration. "Just put up with it Naruto, I'm trying to study," she growled before returning to her script. "Why on earth would this me be interested in that idiot," she muttered under her breath.

See you next time if it ever arises, I know I sound stupid saying this after so many chapters but I've given up on so many stories that I refuse to take a chance anymore.

Missq


	4. Pocky Makes You Fat

Pocky Makes you Fat

Author puts no thought into chapter names

As of a while ago my stingy parents have officially banned me from the internet, which in other words means I just have to wait until they're not home or sleeping to check my e-mail. I entered a fan fiction contest a few weeks ago, but since I was the only entry it was cancelled. ;;

I have a plan now. Believe it or not I eventually formulated the plot to this story over a year ago. I just never did a thing with it until now which is quite a surprise. Maybe it's because I spend less hours wasting my time over watching anime ever since I banned myself from subtitles so I could improve my Japanese. It stops being additive when you don't get hooked on the story line as easily, now I'm just addicted to writing.

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Sakura awoke with a spitting headache to find herself staring up at a dimly lit wooden ceiling instead of the familiar sight of white plaster which she awoke to every morning. She stared at the worn and rotting rafters for a moment while trying to remember how she had gotten into this situation. She'd left home in the morning to train, then she went back to the village for lunch, then more training …

At the memory of the tree which had beaten a student of the great Orochimaru Sakura groaned. That now explained why it felt as though she'd rammed into a wall and why her back also ached. This was just another event to add to the ever growing list of embarrassing training accidents. She reached up to feel her nose which was sore, but luckily unbroken.

"You shouldn't be training by yourself," echoed a deadpan voice that originated from somewhere within her surroundings.

Sakura shot up out of what was now clearly a bed, and reached down to her ninja pouch out of instinct, only to find it gone. This lead to a slight panic attack before the ruffling of fabric caused her to momentarily glance down at a rather worn and patched up blanket that had been keeping her warm during her time unconscious. She briefly thought it could do with a wash before she turned her attention back to the source of the previous sound.

Siting cross-legged in a chair facing opposite her sat the previous subject of her attention, in all his emotionless and mysterious glory. He was cradling in his lap what appeared to be a children's book and was in the process of violently vandalising it with a crayon.

'The Complete History of Konoha' which had almost pulled her arm mussels sat underneath the leg of a nearby table and was serving the purpose of steading it. She briefly wondered how it could have come into his possession when he was apparently banned from the library.

Surely he couldn't have stolen it

She looked to the visible barcode on the book he was currently defiling. Yes the brat was most defiantly a sneaky little book thief. After a second glance she read the title to be 'The Children's Illustrated Guide to the Hidden Leaf,' which was also listed as a compulsory reading book for first year academy students.

Sakura glared at him in disapproval before turning her attention back to what she assumed to be his home. The estimated size would be around half the standard issue Konoha apartment, and was furnished simply with a single bed, a small four sitting table, as well as a variety of cupboards against the walls. Her host obviously paid very little attention to house keeping and had an assortment of books and scrolls casually dumped all over the room, and a pile of old Manga magazines in one corner. Neglect had also lead to spider webs and dust accumulating in the rafters and ceiling, which she could only just see with the aid of the few candles that lit the room. One of which Naruto was using to read by.

She stared at him while pondering what to say, and considered wether asking if he'd read any good books lately would be a good way to kick start a conversation before the growl of her stomach achieved it for her.

Sakura smiled innocently. She hadn't eaten since midday, and it wasn't until now that it finally dawned upon her how hungry she was truly feeling.

Naruto placed his crayon down, and without taking his eyes off the book, reached behind him into a cupboard and pulled out a cup of instant Ramen which he absently chucked towards her. She caught it easily, had the lid ripped off, and was munching into the raw noddles before Naruto could even tell her to go boil her own damn hot water.

As much as he didn't like it he'd had no other choice than to bring her back to his home. They were miles from the village when he found her unconscious, and with the signs of the storm which was now thrashing outside, it was impractical to make the journey there and back when he was so close to home. Not to mention he had absolutely no idea where the girl lived and would most probably get instantly arrested by the ANBU for kidnapping. As much as Naruto would have loved to leave her to rot, his stupid conscious always seemed to get in the way.

He sighed while rubbing his temples which caused the book to slip out of his lap and onto the floor. He could feel a headache coming on from the need to think. This was most defiantly a difficult situation. He'd probably have to wait until she was asleep again and the storm was over before carrying her out to a location away from his home. Either that or blindfold her, there was no way he could let the location of his home be known. It was his only sanctuary away from everything that was the village of Konoha and the Shinobi that lay inside.

Having now devoured the cup at lightning speed, Sakura glanced down at Naruto's creative illustrations that were currently open on the floor. She assumed that it had once been a picture of their current Hokage, only now he possessed a moustache, glasses, demon horns, and various profanities written upon his forehead. It caused her to recall the words Naruto had once shouted at her on the day when they last parted.

"You really don't like the Fifth do you," she commented.

Naruto looked at her for the first time, his face screwed up in disgust. "I loathe him."

Sakura gently smiled, and wondered how what she assumed to be an eleven year old would be using such a word as 'loathe.' "That's good; I don't really like him either."

Naruto stared while looking slightly puzzled, wondering if this was a trick to win his trust. "What do you mean you don't like him, he's your teacher isn't he?"

"Yes," she nodded desolately while thinking of how she should phrase her words. It had always been a highly dangerous thing to ever speak badly of the great Orochimaru. "But he scares me a little."

Naruto huffed. "He doesn't scare me, stupid bastard thinks he's so great because he's Hokage and can boss everyone around, using people to his advantage, doing whatever he likes."

"He does demand free lunch from the food vendors," she added, having witnesses on many occasions certain restaurant owners almost throw food in his face in order to get in the Hokage's favour. It was one of the many fear tactics he implied over the village that lead people to worship him to avoid meeting a painful consequence.

The boy screwed up his face and crossed his arms. "All his techniques should be banned."

"His training regimes come from hell," Sakura added after recalling the time when Sasuke passed out, and herself being subjected to frightening genjitsu repeatedly until she could successfully deflect them. "Freaking sadist," she muttered bitterly under her breath to her own surprise.

"Bah you think that's bad, I used to know his last student and she was absolutely mental."

"Past student," she repeated. "I heard that all his old students died?"

"Well this one bloody survived," he muttered. "She and Orochimaru don't get along anymore, but that doesn't stop her from being insane," he seemed to stop and shudder at the past memories. In his entire life he never wanted to encounter crazy Anko ever again, he swore he could still feel the scars. "She's creepy like him, but in a more violent and bloodthirsty way."

"Ah, I see," she replied, the fear of her teacher's past student now planted in her mind. '_Saskue better not turn out like that!'_ screamed inner Sakura from within.

It seemed as though it were the first time Naruto had been able to freely criticise the village leader and he was ecstatic to continue. "But Orochimaru, his voice is so creepy," he then proceeded to try a rather bad impersonation. "Ssss Naruto-kun you are tessting my patiensssse."

Sakura laughed slightly at his sudden enthusiasm. "On really bright days he carries shade with him, he's probably trying to keep himself looking all sickly and pale."

Naruto leaned in closer towards her as though he had some secret to share. "I think his eyes are contact lenses."

"No it's probably a jitsu," she said while shaking her head and pondering just how he managed to get his eyes to appear so snake like. "He still appears young for his age which isn't possible"

"I wouldn't be surprised if he did experiments to look like an ugly snake!"

"You haven't seen him talk to snakes when he thinks no one is looking!" It was apparent that Naruto's enthusiasm was contagious when she put more energy into the statement than she intended. "They're probably his only friends."

"I know I know!" he quickly launched into another impression that surprised Sakura. It was such an odd experience to finally see him so energetic and full of life as opposed to the Naruto that she had previously seen from a distance. She immediately decided that she preferred this more childlike side of him compared to the silent and frightening version.

"But worst of all is his creepy assistant Kabuto," he continued. "I thought he was a really nice guy when he first started working, but he can be as bad as Orochimaru, and a real sadist too. There was this one time when…"

Sakura kept nodding as he continued on with his list of a hundred things he hated about the Fifth Hokage, which was slowly becoming more trivial and childish. How often Orochimaru changed his underwear wasn't exactly a subject she was thrilled at discussing, and she doubted that Naruto even knew what he was going on about anymore.

Sakura briefly wondered how he was so familiar with the Fifth, and his assistant who she herself barely knew. How could he have so much to complain about when he lived such a great distance away? She was itching just to ask what had occurred between them in the past, but her senses were indicating that it was something the other boy was unlikely to talk about, and she didn't have the heart to ruin his good mood. After what had happened before she decided it was best if he told her things on his own accord.

"Ah! And have you noticed the way he always reeks of disinfectant?"

"Yeah," she said while yawning. She was too tired to add "_It's because he does all those experiments in his free time."_

The boy seemed to warm up to her greatly after their bitching session on the Fifth to the extent of offering her a rather dusty packet of Pocky. Sakura smiled and politely rejected it with the knowledge of how many calories lay within the chocolate coated pretzel sticks. He seemed overjoyed to have an actual person to talk to, and continued on to the many joys about the instant Ramen she had previously consumed. Sakura continued to nod patiently despite being as bored as hell, and she slowly watched as the room blurred before her as she nodded off to sleep once more.

* * *

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By the time morning came the ground and foliage was fresh and damp from the previous night's storm. Light filtered though the many moisture droplets and cast an array of miniature rainbows through out the surrounding undergrowth.

"Amazing," Sakura whispered under her breath. Before her in the morning light, and dripping with dew, lay a highly mutilated and heavily etched tree. She stared up in wonder to discover that the marks continued a full fifty meters to the top.

Naruto had barely been able to get five meters in two hours, the amount of time and effort that he must have put in to mastering tree climbing was unimaginable.

Naruto appeared from behind her, pleased at the reaction he'd received from the pink haired girl. "Watch this."

And before her very eyes Naruto took a run up and easily affixed himself to the trunk with his feet. She watched as he slowly climbed, twenty meters, then thirty, till he was finally miles above her and beaming with pride at the top. "See look I can do it now!" he bellowed down.

Sakura couldn't hep but feel admiration for him, but also at herself for being the one who explained it all in the first place. "That's really amazing!" she yelled back.

Naruto smile broadly and proceeded to do a happy dance, which gave Sakura a better opportunity to view his home in the daylight without looking too conspicuous.

As far as she could tell they were located in a clearing fairly deep within the forest, much further than she usually dared to venture. His house appeared to be a run down old shack with many random bits of wood nailed to the outside to prevent wind and rain from going through. The boy's enthusiasm for ninja skills was apparent from the many targets that were scribbled on the surrounding trees, and the rusted kunai and shuriken that littered the ground. A straw training dummy which looked as though it had been hastily sewn together was also swinging like a hanged man from a nearby branch.

Naruto continued to show off by walking back down at normal pace. He seemed quite pleased with himself until he slipped twenty meters from the bottom and landed in an undignified heap at the base of the tree. He attempted to quickly compose himself, but Sakura was already considering wether or not he could possibly ever become a ninja at all.

Sakura stopped to examine the shuriken imbedded in the closest tree. The projectile range was unknown, but it appeared as though his aim wasn't half bad. Maybe there was hope for him yet. "Naruto, where do you usually throw these from?"

The boy jumped at the opportunity to do something, and quickly rushed to a spot fifteen or so meters behind her. "Here, but I aim from further back as well."

Sakura stared at the tree and the distance from which he was standing while trying to do calculations in her head. His aim just about rivalled hers, and it seemed right to assume that he spent countless hours just practicing much like he did with the tree exercise.

She smiled back at him. "You really like ninja skills don't you?"

Naruto nodded. "Of course; they're the greatest thing ever!" he beamed.

"You can have all my academy books if you like," she said upon deciding that she probably didn't have any use for them anymore. "They have tones of easy techniques that would be really helpful."

The boy's eyes seemed to glaze over at the possibility of receiving an academy education, the one thing he'd spent most of his childhood dreaming about. "You mean it?"

She nodded back. "I'll bring them next time."

The reaction was instantaneous, one minute he was standing in a daze, then the next he was bouncing off the ground repeating "Ninjitsu, ninjitsu," as though it were a mantra, and telling her of how he was gong to become a super awesome Ninja. She momentarily considered the consequences of teaching ninja skills to someone who was banned from learning such things, but a few Jitsu's surely wouldn't kill anyone. It wasn't as though he could do any serious damage with Henge, Bunshin, and Replacement, which were the lowest level possible. Given how he possessed a deep seated resentment for Orochimaru it was unlikely that he would go telling her teacher about it. So there was no harm done, was there?

* * *

The rest of the day had gone pleasantly for Sakura once she returned back home for lunch, but it was while merrily walking though the village centre that she was confronted with an undesirable sight.

"Well if it isn't forehead-chan, I swore I could see you coming from a mile away."

Sakura immediately felt her posture tense as her face screwed up in disgust at the nauseating voice of her enemy. She'd been in a fairly cheery mood so far after leaving Naruto's home, that was before Ino-pig had to bring her ugly face into the picture.

Sakura turned to see the blonde standing side by side with what she claimed to be her waste of oxygen team mates. She was familiar with Nara Shikamaru and Akamichi Chouji from their academy days, and even though she'd spent a great deal of time going on about how crap they were compared to her new team, she supposed they both had their uses.

Currently the two of them appeared worn out and tired, and she couldn't tell wether they had just completed a mission, or if it was from spending countless hours in the company of Ino.

"Bah, Ino pig, still completing D-rank missions I see, how many toilet seats have you cleaned this week?" she counter attacked.

The blonde smiled with her hands on her hips. "Please that was ages ago; Asuma sensei has us doing C-rank now. The pay is far better, if you ask nice I might even lend you money to buy better clothes."

"Oh, I think it would be a better investment on your own appearance."

"At least I don't wear such clashing colours, red with pink hair, green shorts.'

"Well we aren't all as skilful when it comes to wasting money on purple."

Ino was in the process of formulating another comeback until she noticed the large box of dango which Sakura was carrying around in her arms. The local sweet shop was especially famous, and was one of the only buildings in the area which had not been burnt down three times in the last few decades from enemy assaults. "Are you feeling hungry forehead-chan, diet getting to you?"

"It's a generous gift to my family, we don't all plan on slowly wasting away like you," and with that she proceeded to stick out her tongue childishly.

"I'm surprised you still fit into your clothes.'

"At least you can't see my bones."

"Bitch!"

"Slut!"

"Pig!"

"I'm far closer at going out with Sasuke than you."

"As if, Sasuke is mine!"

"In your dreams he's mine!"

"Well… ….My hair is longer than yours!"

Shikamaru watched them go at each other from the side lines and wondered if his day could possibly get any more exciting. He blamed Ikura-sensei for pairing him up with Ino. The only thing the girl seemed to delight in doing was bossing them around, and talking about Sasuke. Women were such annoying people who he swore existed only for the purpose of making his life harder. Why on earth did they become Shinobi if they only worried about their hair and nails?

Chouji was more passive towards the situation and was beginning to fear that an undesirable cat fight would soon occur. He slowly turned to a source of comfort which just happened to be one of his many packets of potato chips.

"Well I'd just love to stay and chat but I'm afraid I have more important things to do Ino darling," said Sakura sweetly even though her left eyebrow was twitching with anger. "I wouldn't want to keep Sasuke-kun waiting," she added as a side comment to piss the other girl off.

Ino reaction was predictable as her face screwed up in jealousy. "Well you just treasure all the time you get with him because when he's my boyfriend he won't even give you a second glance," she yelled to Sakura's back as the cherry blossom girl began walking away.

Ino huffed only to witness Sakura walk in the complete opposite direction from her home and towards the forest. Being a dedicated member of the Sasuke fan club (A.K.A a Sasuke stalker) she had failed to see Sakura anywhere near the dark haired boy, or even in the presence of the Fifth Hokage. Weren't they supposed to be a team, and wasn't she supposed to be in the process of gaining super amazing skills from the strongest Ninja in the village?

Maybe being out in the forest had something to do with it after all. Maybe her rival was completing Sasuke related quests in the confines of isolation? Or maybe she was in the process of developing techniques that would leave Ino in the dust? Given the amount of food she'd brought maybe the girl was secretly going out to meet with the subject of Ino's unhealthy obsession.

Maybe…. just possibly…..as much as she refused to consider the possibility…… Sakura could be…

ON A DATE!

"Yosh," swore Ino with a clapped fist as her aura began to burn. "You can't hide anything from me forehead girl I'm going to expose you soon no matter what it takes. No one beats the great Yamanaka Ino."

Shikamaru stared at his team mate blankly and tried to pretend that he didn't see flames of determination burning in her eyes. He knew that look, it was 'Ino on a mission' and he could only guess that it had something to do with the recently departed Haruno Sakura. He failed to understand what went on between the pair, nor could he be bothered working it out. The only thing he cared about was how annoying Ino always became after a run in with her so called rival.

"Oi Ino," he called rather lazily with a hint of annoyance. "Asuma-sensei said we have to meet for training," there was of course no such meeting, but he had to distract Ino from any dastardly plot she was formulating. She was gaining a tendency to try and involve himself and Chouji.

"But Sensei," began Chouji before he was suddenly cut off with a sharp look from Shikamaru.

Ino was suddenly brought out of a daydream. "Oh yeah… but lunch" she stared back to forehead's location only to find that the girl was gone from her range of sight.

Shikamaru sighed before walking off without even a final word. He couldn't be bothered staying to communicate with Ino, and too many troublesome events had already occurred today. It was most defiantly time for rest and sleep. He would have preferred to return home, but with his mother's constant dictation of the house she would only find him chores to do.

"Mentokusei," he muttered under his breath.

"Oi Shikamaru," yelled Chouji while running after his friend and scattering chip crumbs in the process. "You said we could stop at the sweet shop!"

At the sight of her team mates slowly disappearing into the village Ino couldn't help but think of what a useless pair of idiots she'd been cursed with. What made matters worse was that their Sensei was absolutely no better.

And so the great female Ninja wannabe Yamanaka Ino slowly made her way home to fertilize flowers.

Sakura could feel anger fuming within her. That bitch Ino always tried to compete with her for anything, what right did she have to try and steal Sasuke away when they were clearly destined to be together. What further annoyed Sakura was that Ino was by now probably stronger than her, even though she refused to ever admit it to her face while they were still living and breathing.

Sakura's march of anger though the village was brought to a halt when she caught sight of the large missing person's notice board outside a police post. She quickly glanced though this month's list and pictures which had been pinned up within the last few days. There was a chuunin with the same surname as Ino, but due to the blonde being her usual and bitchy self she assumed they were no relation and continued on her way. She'd spent the last year or so hoping Ino would turn up on the list of people who never returned from missions, or disappeared within the village, but unfortunately she'd had no such luck.

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This is actually my gift to you before I have to return to the joys of year twelve (I'm doing Chinese, I'm so excited!), and relentless studying so that I may pass onto university. I'm really not sure how much time I'll have to write once the school year starts.

Mentokusei, is Japanese for troublesome, I tried my hardest but it's just one word I had to have Shikamaru say, since I hear him say it so much in the manga and anime. I have all these urges to make the characters speak Japanese (like 'Mattaku!) but I must resist since it will only slow the story down.

This chapter turned out longer than expected, I planned another scene but once I got these down it was long enough. I don't even realise how much I've written till it's all down before me.

Missq


	5. Cherry Blossom with Thorns

Sorry for the wait people, they're nice enough to give us a week off at Easter so I have time to write again even though I should be doing homework. (I lost my USB with all my homework, I'M DOOMED!!) I have a lot of uncertainty about this story so I've decided to just tackle it one chapter at a time. Usually I start and then the chapter's finished before I know it. Excuse the prood reading, I hate it too much to bother/

I've figured out the majority of my plot line. I think its supper smart and cool, you might not though. Just to let you know Kanji are chinse symbols that the Japanese use when writing verbs and objects. There's thousands of them so it makes reading pretty difficult. Manga's great because they write the Hiragana (the base alphabet) next to them.

Currently listening to 'Famous last words" by My Chemical Romance, tis a cool song.

**Cherry Blossom with thorns **

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Sakura was by no means a patient girl. She was a single child who was used to getting all the attention she desired from her mother, teachers, and friends, which was why she chose to finally give up and throw the book in, or more precisely _at_ Naruto.

A single "Goddamn it," was the only warning he received before the forth year academy text book came speeding towards his temple. He was slowly beginning to master the art of avoiding airborne objects which his tutor took great care in assailing, but only managed to doge into its path rather than to safety. Thus Uzumaki Naruto was given another opportunity to get to know his grass a little better.

"Ah, Honestly!" moaned Sakura as she began to pull at the ends of her hair in frustration. In the past week or so she had managed to get Naruto up to scratch on preforming a half decent Henge, but his skills with bunshin were not progressing at all. For the first few days he hadn't even been able to do _anything,_ and recently all he could manage was a washed out dummy illusion that just wouldn't do at all. How hard could it possible be to make a single clone? If all the toddlers could do what was wrong with this fool?

Yes she had searched, she had dug deep, and what did she find behind the Ninetails stigma that overshadowed Naruto?

She discovered this useless idiot.

The useless idiot was now trying to estimate how big a bruise would form on his forehead by pocking the area with slight apprehension. He had long learnt that it was simply easier to let Sakura vent out her anger, rather than protest against it and start an argument. She seemed to hang around longer when there was a human punching bag to freely bash when the time called for it.

With all her fury vented out Sakura collapsed onto the ground out of exhaustion and sighed. The feeling that she should be studding for Orochimaru refused to relent, but she had learnt as much as she could for now. "Everyone I know mastered these techniques back when we younger than you," she moaned. "How old are you anyway?"

Now that the pain had subsided slightly Naruto managed to sit up in the grass so that he was eyelevel with Sakura. "13."

"Eh! 13," she was slightly taken back before she began to count the years since the Kyuubi attack and wonder why it never came to her sooner. "That's right you're my age, I always thought you were 11 because of your hight."

Naruto stared back blankly, obviously not pleased that the only girl he knew took him for a child. No wonder she'd been talking down at him since the day they met.

"Wow," Sakura muttered as she stretched out her legs and stared towards the sky. "Had you attended the academy we might have been in the same class." '_Thank god you weren't,'_ She said silently to herself. '_This guy would have never passed'_.

It was not simply his pace of learning techniques that deemed him an idiot in Sakura's eyes. It hadn't taken her long to realise that Naruto had the attention span of a five year old and a reading age to match. Any theory she attempted to explain just went straight over his head, and he was off in day dreamland from the moment she opened her mouth. He was only slightly less crappy at learning by example, and despite his efforts, progress was always painfully slow.

The only explanation she had managed to form as to why she was still in the company of this moron was extreme loneliness.

"Well then," she uttered while searching though her pile of academy books which had been carelessly dumped on the grass despite their perfect organisation. Eventually she found what she was looking for and shoved it into Naruto's face. "That means that by now you should be able to correctly identify and write all the following Kanji."

She opened the book to unveil a list of characters that had been neatly stapled to the inside cover. Despite his hate for the alphabet Naruto though he might somehow be able to cope before the list unfolded itself, once, twice, three times, until the bottom edge was hovering just above the ground.

"You need to at least know two hundred of these to read easy technique scrolls, even more if you want to learn some half decent stuff."

Naruto, whose reading ability didn't exceed past children's manga, felt his eyes widen and jaw drop. How could she honestly expect him to correctly identify and write two hundred when they all just looked the same? He'd done half alright by just looking at diagrams so far, reading was painful.

His expression was enough to bring a sadistic smile to Sakura's face. Yes, it was finally pay back time for wasting so many precious hours of her life.

_Welcome to study hell Uzumaki Naruto_

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A days training under the Fifth Hokage was usually enough to last the average Gennin a life time. Orochimaru had a tendency to expect too much of his students, and forced them to perform techniques that were far beyond a child's capacity. Sasuke was not the type to settle for being average, he was also the type who was willing to endure the pain of his bruised limbs rather than fall into the pavement as he longed to do so.

And so the famous Uchiha Sasuke could be seen hobbling home through the village. Keeping to the back routes in order to avoid being seen by the majority of the population in his dishevelled state. He was almost home free until a young black haired girl who had a habit of jumping him in the academy appeared on the horizon. With a curse he forced his aching limbs around in the other direction only to see none other than Yamanaka Ino, who was possibly ten times worse, approaching from around the corner. The realisation that he was trapped came crashing down, and Sasuke was prepared to go though another training session rather than get trapped between the two.

At the speed of light he dashed into a nearby ally like a ferret, knocking down several trash cans in the process. Covered with vegetable peal and smelling of old noodles the Uchiha prodigy pinned himself to the side of the wall and prayed to god that his presence would remain unknown. He thought they'd leave him alone once he graduated, but becoming a student of the current Hokage only increased his popularity.

The yell of insults towards each other indicated to Sasuke that he hadn't been detected by the enemy. They continued to banter back and forth for what seemed like a life time before the two of them eventually went their separate ways, and it was only then that he left out a sigh of relief. Sasuke was feeling quite proud of his ninja skills until he detected a trash can hurling towards his head to which he attempted to dodge but failed miserably.

Swearing and nursing his pretty boy forehead Sasuke looked up to see an unknown stranger looking down at him from the edge of the next door noodle shack, silhouetted by the setting sun. The new arrival relaxed and placed his hand upon his hip in a gesture that could be taken as amusement. "It's quite unbecoming if you're resorting to hiding in alley's to get away from girls, Sasuke-chan!"

Sasuke twitched in anger as he recognized the voice instantly. "Damn you Shisui, why'd you have to throw a damn can at my head!"

The man now identified as Shisui gracefully jumped from the top of his building, landed perfectly in front of Sasuke, and removed his Anbu mask to expose his youthful face. "Why Sasuke-chan, that pretty little head of yours has been expanding at a rapid rate, I thought it could do with some down tunning, but it seems you're already covered with garbage."

Sasuke looked down at himself only to discover with horror that he was in fact enveloped with vegetable peel. In an attempt to salvage pride he began to hastily brush down his clothing while attempting to give Shisui the evil eye. Unfortunately Sasuke was not up to the level of intimidating an Anbu yet and the man only laughed at his efforts.

"What are you doing here anyway? How many times do I have to tell you not to call me Sasuke-chan." he muttered.

"But little Sasuke, do I need an excuse to see how my favourite little cousin is doing? It's been forever since we've had a proper family get together," out of nowhere Shisui dramatically threw his arm around Sasuke's shoulder in a gesture of fake angst. "You never come and visit, always training or brooding in a corner."

"If you have time to act like a fool then you should be practicing your techniques," Sasuke muttered coldly while evading his cousin's grasp and trying to figure out his odd behaviour. "You've never done this before, what do you really want?"

Shisui looked slightly put off for a moment before he assumed a serious stance that was more becoming of his position, Sasuke suddenly realised that the older man seemed somewhat anxious which was unlike his character. "To be honest Sasuke, I came to talk you because I believe you're going down the same path as Itachi."

Sasuke unwillingly flinched at the name. A mixture of emotions began to swell within his stomach to which he had to suppress in order to maintain a nonchalant face. "So what if I am," he replied coldly.

Shisui sighed and shook his head; he was now staring at the ground as though trying to plan his words carefully. "Sasuke we were all upset about what happened to the clan," he said slowly and calmly, as though Sasuke was still ten years old. "But there is nothing you can do about it, Itachi was a genius, he gr-

"Graduated from the academy when he was seven, achieved sharigan at eight, became chuunin at 10, got to Anbu when he was my age," said Sasuke, reeling the words off like he had a thousand times before "Don't you think I know already?"

"And yet even he couldn't do anything!" exclaimed Shisui, spreading his arms out as though to emphasise the point. "Don't you get it Sasuke, if even Itachi couldn't do it, how do you hold any hope of killing the man who abolished our entire family?"

"No you don't get it! I _will_ become stronger than both of you and succeed when onii-san failed! I'll be the avenger!"

Shisui screwed up his fists and let out a yell of frustration that echoed off the ally walls. "Avenger, Avenger, that's all your brother bloody ranted, he was mad Sasuke mad! After everyone died all he ever talked about was revenge, he went out is search of this mysterious person who vanished in the wind and never returned!" he paused for breath, unpleased with how little Sasuke seemed effected. " Is that a life you really want to lead Sasuke! Do you really want to throw it all away too for a goal you can never obtain?"

"Yes," Sasuke replied instantly.

Despite being reminded of the same wall he had faced with Itachi Shisui was willing to try once more with a gentle approach. "They weren't just your family Sasuke, I lost everything too, I managed to move on with my life instead of holding onto feelings of the past."

"It's different with you, you and onii-san weren't there to see it happen," Saskue closed his eyes only to see the same scene that haunted his dreams, his parents, his relatives, everyone he ever knew or love being slaughtered before him as he only cried. That man and his eyes, nothing seemed capable of penetrating them. "I don't know why he left only me, I don't know who he was, but I can't ever move on until I can repay him for what he did to all of us."

"Fine be that way," Shisui muttered bitterly. "Be like Itachi and let your heat be consumed with hate and vengeance, spend your entire life following clues that lead to dead ends, waste your life away chasing that ambition, see if I care."

Shisui replaced his mask and adjusted it back into a comfortable position. Sasuke momentarily wondered if he was that shameful to look at.

"I'm sorry Shisui," said Sasuke.

"Don't apologise," he replied in a tone that was probably the one he used while on the job. "There is one more thing I want to talk to you about."

"What?" asked Sasuke.

"Orochimau may be the Hokage of this village, but he's a dangerous teacher, I'm assuming you go to him to gain power, but he has a tendency of injecting venom into his students, most to the point of death."

Sasuke remained unfazed. "I know, but he's the only man who could possibly help me to track down and kill that man."

Shisui nodded, before he turned to leave, appearing more tired then when he arrived. "Then by all means be careful, you're the only family I have left, I wouldn't want to lose you too," and with one final salute Uchiha Sasuke vanished in a mass of swirling leaves.

Sasuke looked solemnly to the place where his cousin had disappeared from and watched as the Konoha slowly drifted to the ground. Despite very few expectations placed upon him it was obvious that he had disappointed his last remaining family member. But how was Shisui, the peace loving fool, to understand how he felt. That day three years ago was constantly replaying itself like a broken record in his mind, every day he was haunted by the memories of his parents who screamed out for revenge. It didn't matter if he couldn't remember that man's face, it didn't matter that the ambition had consumed and indirectly killed his genius brother.

All that mattered was payback.

Sasuke looked to the sky as though speaking to the heavens themselves. "I'm sorry Shisui, but I can let them down, if Itachi has failed then I must take his place."

And so with a quick swivel of his feet Sasuke left to go back out into the world and its many horrors that he was all too familiar with. If need be he would run, live pathetically, and resort to any means necessary until the day when he could feel that person's blood on his hands and watch those haunting eyes turn cold.

It was after all, the closest thing he had to a dream.

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AN. I intended for Shisui to be serious, I don't know what happened. I feel that Sasuke tends to get lots of bashing in the fan fiction world. I know he's a bit of an arse at times but if my entire family was killed I'd be pretty pissed off too.

Ah the plot thickens. Will Sakura end up strangling Naruto to death? Who massacred the Uchiha clan? Why do people mysteriously disappear around the village? The answers to all this and more in the next exciting chapter of "The Monster in the Forest'

Coming eventually when I'm hit with my next onset of insomnia.

Missq


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